RAWALPINDI: After remaining unused for decades, the swimming pool built by the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) in 1957 in the historic triangular park opposite the Military Hospital on the Mall has been buried for good.

RCB workers recently filled the pool with earth to expand the playing area for children in the 4.5 acre park. It was laid by the British troops stationed in the garrison city in 1903 in memory of their commander, Gen Sir William Stephen Alexander Lockhart.

Though christened as Rumi Park after the creation of Pakistan, it is popularly known as Teen Kona Park for its shape. A column still standing in the grounds of the park says Gen Sir William died in Calcutta on March 8, 1900.

However, since the RCB did not open it to the general public, the 90x40 ft swimming pool it built there in 1957 fell in decay and has been lying deserted for decades. Eventually, the RCB decided to utilise the pool building for indoor games for children and leveled the swimming pool with earth to develop the park area.

RCB Executive Officer Fahim Zafar Khan, however, described the leveling as temporary. “We did not dismantle the abandoned pool. We wanted to provide the children more play area,” he told Dawn.

“There is water shortage in cantonment area and dengue virus. It will be difficult to start a swimming pool for the general public in this situation,” he added.

There was the danger that the swimming pool will spread disease if it was filled with untreated water and the RCB had “no mechanism to install such treatment plant and maintain the pool,” he said.

Meanwhile, the RCB has launched a project worth Rs12 million to convert the neglected park into what the officer called ‘a family recreational site’. “Mostly, low-income families visit the park,” he said. “And our civic body is making arrangements to provide them better facilities.”

These facilities would include food stalls in the park and mechanical swings in the pool building.

“We will also develop a parking lot for 150 vehicles. At present, visitors have to park their motorcycles on main Peshawar Road, which creates traffic mess, particularly on Sundays and other holidays,” the officer said.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2014